Simply amazing
Trip Start
Jun 18, 2007
1
90
150
Trip End
Ongoing
Esfahan,
Iran
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Getting to esfhan on a bus showed another funny side to Iran as on the bus it seemed many young women take off their head scarf which in my books was fine but you should have seen them jump when the bus stopped and a policeman (i.e. a govt officer) boarded the bus. The scarf were quickly put back on
In India and other places there are places called .... the Paris of the west/east etc This are often a joke Europe is Europe no other place can replicate it.
Well in Iran there is Esfhan and it the best place I've been too in 8 months - it was great
at a tea shop
. I won't harp on any more, the pictures will say it all but if it was this good in winter I really want to back for spring What else.....
I saw a whipping ceremony where the young whip themselves in anger of the death of someone who dies 1000s years ago simply amazing and as a foreigner I was welcomed in and it was great as they explained it too me
As gas is so cheap 10c a litre the Iranians just let the stove run all day - when i questioned this I was told "if we don't use it the USA will just steal it" - classic
I also stayed with some uni students in a share house for two days. Well it was just like warren street in Brisbane minus the beer - but I was told that if i wanted it they could arrange it.
The govt in their wisdom has decided to ban the smoking pipe in public -WTF - that was why i came to Iran. Nevertheless the locals get around this by placing it under the tables in tea houses.
One of the students I stayed with was also an English teacher and i got to go to an Iranian school for an hour and speak to these Iranian girls (about 15 years old and all in the official govt uniform - NO HAIR) it was so funny all they wanted to know was what my feelings about their president was and whether I like the USA
wax figure at a museum
. Again something that lasted only an hour but priceless On my last day in Esfhan was a holiday. I found out it was the anniversary of the start of the Islamic revolution and what better time to have a 'down with America and Israel' demonstration. Well i decided to have a look at this cause how many times would you get to see this except on the news. My farsi is limited to a few words but 'America' and 'Bushe' were being chanted a lot and not in a good way I'm guessing. However I was soon taking pictures of all this and chatting to the locals, who told me that it's the govt they hate not the people etc. They were most amused that I was there and were happy to discuss politics which i found surprising. The best experience was getting offered chai (its all they drink here except non-alcoholic beer) by some fire fighters in there fire fighting truck in this huge square (the 2nd biggest in the world) and therefore having a great view of all the people and the slogans- it was amazing as all you could see was a sea of black, as the women all wore their chadors this day unlike other days where they wear tight jeans and colourful head scarfs. It was certainly one of those one in a million opportunities that couldn't be missed. While today may seem to represent a typical day in Iran, I can confidently say it does not and 99.9% of my time here has been excellent and the people I've talked to have been at pains to tell me we are not like what you see on the news (and we are not Arab!).
I was so sad to leave after 5 days - it was one of those rare places that I didn't want to leave - I could talk about all the mosques and the square but trust me just look at the pics
